John Henry Barrow

John Henry Barrow (1817 – 22 August 1874) was a Congregational minister, journalist and South Australian politician.

Early life

Barrow was born in England, son of John Barrow. He studied for the Congregational ministry at Hackney College and had his took charge of the Congregational Church Market Drayton in Shropshire, also running a school. He was then transferred to Bradford, Yorkshire where he began writing for the Bradford Observer.

Career in Australia

Barrow went to Adelaide, South Australia in 1851 with his family and obtained a position in the office of the "South Australian Register". He also did work on the literary side and, when Andrew Garran went to Sydney, succeeded him as principal leader writer. He began preaching at Kensington, South Australia and the Clayton Chapel was built for him, but though an excellent preacher, Barrow was unsure whether his real work lay in church life, and he resigned his pastorate in 1858 to enter the South Australian House of Assembly as the member for East Torrens.

Also in 1858 Barrow left the "Register" to become editor and manager of the newly established "The Advertiser" whose first issue appeared on 12 July 1858. The first number of the "Weekly Chronicle" came out a five days later, and in 1863 the "Express" was started as an evening paper. Though these papers were conducted with ability, the controlling company did not prosper, and it was wound up in 1864. The papers passed into the hands of a proprietary of eight persons of whom Barrow was one, and in 1871 Barrow and Thomas King became the sole proprietors. Barrow was editor of the "Advertiser" until he fell into ill-health a few months before his death.

The editing of a newspaper is a sufficiently exacting piece of work for most people, but Barrow was a man of tireless energy and contrived also to carry out the duties of a member of parliament during nearly the whole of this period. He did not seek re-election for the assembly in 1860 but in 1861 became a member of the South Australian Legislative Council. In 1870 he was one of the South Australian delegates to the intercolonial conference held at Melbourne, in 1871 he resigned from the council, and in 1872 became member for Sturt in the House of Assembly. He joined the seventh Henry Ayers ministry as treasurer in March 1872, holding the position until Ayers resigned in July 1873.

Late life

In mid-1873, Barrow's health completely broke down, and though he went to the intercolonial conference at Sydney as one of the South Australian delegates in the hope that change of scene might lead to its improvement, it continued to deteriorate, and he died in Adelaide on 22 August 1874 of an effusion on the brain. He was married twice and left a widow, three sons and three daughters. Barrow had a great reputation in his time as a speaker and journalist.

References

* C. M. Sinclair, ' [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030101b.htm Barrow, John Henry (1817 - 1874)] ', "Australian Dictionary of Biography", Volume 3, MUP, 1969, pp 104-105.
*Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=John Henry|Last=Barrow|Link=http://gutenberg.net.au/dictbiog/0-dict-biogBa.html#barrow1